City Check Cashing, Inc. v. National State Bank

In City Check Cashing, Inc. v. National State Bank, 244 N.J. Super. 304, 582 A.2d 809 (App.Div.1990) the court held that a check cashing service was not a "consumer" of bank services within the meaning of the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act. In that case, the plaintiff, a check cashing service, attempted to assert a consumer fraud claim against a bank that froze its account in violation of an alleged oral agreement. The court characterized the plaintiff's business as one in which "the plaintiff was essentially buying cash from the defendant bank at wholesale to sell to its check-cashing customers at retail". Id. at 308, 582 A.2d 809. In City Check Cashing, the court defined a consumer as "one who uses (economic) goods, and so diminishes or destroys their utilities." Id. at 309, 582 A.2d 809. Applying this definition, the court reasoned that "plaintiff did not diminish or destroy the utility of the cash and therefore did not consume it." City Check Cashing, supra at 309, 582 A.2d 809.